Servant of the servants of God

"Servant of the servants of God" (Latin: servus servorum Dei)[1] is one of the titles of the Pope and is used at the beginning of papal bulls.

[2] Pope Gregory I (pope from 590 to 604), the first Pope to use this title extensively to refer to himself,[3] deployed it as a lesson in humility for the archbishop of Constantinople John the Faster (in office 582-595), who had been granted the traditional title "Ecumenical Patriarch"[4] by a Council convened in Constantinople in 587.

[5] Gregory reportedly reacted negatively to the Patriarch's title, claiming that "whoever calls himself universal bishop [the imprecise Latin translation of "Ecumenical Patriarch"],[citation needed] or desires this title, is, by his pride, the precursor to the Antichrist.

"[6]

The 1570 bull Quo primum of Pope Pius V in a Roman Missal . Below the name of the Pope Pius Episcopus (Pius Bishop) appears his title Servus servorum Dei . Not all papal documents begin in this way, but bulls do.